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Trump campaign hits ‘Corrupt Kaine’ right out of the gate

Donald Trump’s campaign wasted little time depicting Hillary Clinton’s new running mate as a continuation of the “rigged system,” casting Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine as “Corrupt Tim” and attacking him for supporting President Barack Obama’s policies.

“Tim Kaine is Hillary’s VP pick. The ultimate insiders – Obama, Hillary, and Kaine. Don’t let Obama have a 3rd Term. Contribute,” Trump said in a text message to supporters.

Trump spokesman Jason Miller followed up with a statement emailed to reporters that described Kaine as an “ethically challenged insider.”

“It’s only fitting that Hillary Clinton would select an ethically challenged insider like Tim Kaine who’s personally benefited from the rigged system,” Miller said. “While serving in government, Kaine has taken tens of thousands of dollars in freebies – more than $160,000 in fact – on free vacations, free clothes, and free tickets,” pointing to a POLITICO story that described the Virginia governor as taking advantage of his state’s “lax gift laws.”

“If you think Crooked Hillary and Corrupt Kaine are going to change anything in Washington, it’s just the opposite,” Miller continued. “They do well by the current system, while the rest of America gets left behind.The choice has never been clearer – Donald Trump calls on us to Believe in America, while the Status Quo ticket of Clinton-Kaine wants us to believe in a rigged system that enriches them at your expense.”

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus released his own statement casting Kaine in similar terms.

“Hillary Clinton’s choice of Tim Kaine does nothing to unify a fractured Democrat base which is repelled by her dishonesty and cronyism,” Priebus said. “After spending last week pandering to grassroots Democrats with Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton has chosen someone who holds positions that she’s spent the entire primary trying to get to the left of.

“Ultimately this is a ticket that represents one thing: four more years like the last eight, just with more corruption and scandal,” Priebus said. “A Clinton-Kaine administration will push our country further down the path President Obama has led us on and that has made us less safe, less prosperous, and less free. More taxes, more debt, more government and more leading from behind on the global stage will not deliver the turnaround our country desperately needs. Americans have had enough of the failed Democrat status quo.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement that by picking Kaine, the former secretary of state had shown “there is no doubt about Hillary Clinton’s plan to serve as a third term of the liberal Obama administration.

“As one of President Obama’s most loyal ‘yes men’ in the Senate, and a proud Clinton Democrat, Kaine fought to protect Obamacare despite higher premiums, massive regulations despite higher costs for consumers, and a foreign policy that even Jimmy Carter says is a failure.“